SJN Saleshttps://sjnsales.wordpress.com
where SJN sales reviews our secrets to sales success...in code!Thu, 14 Dec 2017 02:25:59 +0000enhourly1http://wordpress.com/https://secure.gravatar.com/blavatar/67234598173b16db6262b7dda06a571e?s=96&d=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.wp.com%2Fi%2Fbuttonw-com.pngSJN Saleshttps://sjnsales.wordpress.com
Why do SJN sales teams look forward to the fall and holiday sales season?https://sjnsales.wordpress.com/2014/11/06/why-do-sjn-sales-teams-look-forward-to-the-fall-and-holiday-sales-season/
https://sjnsales.wordpress.com/2014/11/06/why-do-sjn-sales-teams-look-forward-to-the-fall-and-holiday-sales-season/#respondThu, 06 Nov 2014 21:00:06 +0000http://sjnsales.wordpress.com/?p=487Continue reading →]]>For the same reason Willy Sutton robbed banks, because that is where the money is. Simply put, SJN Sales makes more money for SJN clients and, of course, for our company, during fourth quarter than at any other time of year.

Some of this is explained by the fact that unlike many sales teams, SJN teams actually work a full sales campaign plan during the busy fall meeting and holiday seasons. This means that we can take advantage of the additional bandwidth, and focused listening, available because many prospects are simply hearing about fewer solutions and opportunities during what most sales organizations consider a weak season. Holidaze, we call it. The sad expression on the faces of salespeople who have not unlocked the secret to maximizing fall and fourth quarter potential to close deals.

The SJN database is filled with interesting tidbits we have learned about our prospects over the years. One of the most important codes is, YESD. Year end spend down. YESD means this prospect has, in past years, bought solutions through SJN Sales as part of a year-end spending spree.

We keep very careful track of companies that do an annual year end spend down. We also take notes whenever someone cues us that they may be a year-end spending company. In those cases, the prospect says something like, “I’ll have to see how the budget looks later in the year.” And we do. We check in and find out whether that July caution is now ripe for a November launch of our client solution. Sounds simple. And it is a simple strategy as long as you listen well, take excellent notes. And, this is the final trick, follow through and make the volume and quality of sales conversations and meeting happen, in the fourth quarter, to harvest all those great YESD accounts we have tracked so carefully.

]]>https://sjnsales.wordpress.com/2014/11/06/why-do-sjn-sales-teams-look-forward-to-the-fall-and-holiday-sales-season/feed/0sjnsalesFall Meeting Season. On the Road Againhttps://sjnsales.wordpress.com/2014/09/16/fall-meeting-season-on-the-road-again/
https://sjnsales.wordpress.com/2014/09/16/fall-meeting-season-on-the-road-again/#respondTue, 16 Sep 2014 19:50:02 +0000http://sjnsales.wordpress.com/?p=485Continue reading →]]>It’s the most wonderful time of the year. Not a cloud in the sky but Fall has arrived. SJN Sales teams are on the road making sales happen for our clients at annual meetings, conventions, and round tables. Big and small.

We always like the Electronic Retailing Association meeting and this year is no exception. Great sessions. Wonderful organizers. Going on right now. Tweet us if you’re here.

Oracle OpenWorld starts the 28th in San Francisco and DreamForce is only a couple of weeks later. AHIMA, the big healthcare information management meeting opens on the 29th in sunny San Diego.

In the last days of September and early October we have a slew of great meetings to attend: We’re looking forward to Interop, HRTech, DreamForce, Predictive Analytics, and more that I’ll post as travel schedules firm up.

If there’s a meeting you wish your SJN Sales team was attending, let us know. We love the opportunity to see our contacts face-to-face and Fall is the best time of year to sell great solutions and services to the industry leaders we meet at meetings.

]]>https://sjnsales.wordpress.com/2014/09/16/fall-meeting-season-on-the-road-again/feed/0sjnsalesTradeshows & Meetings – Partial listhttps://sjnsales.wordpress.com/2014/04/07/april-tradeshows-meetings-partial-list/
https://sjnsales.wordpress.com/2014/04/07/april-tradeshows-meetings-partial-list/#respondMon, 07 Apr 2014 15:53:35 +0000http://sjnsales.wordpress.com/?p=479Continue reading →]]>It’s already a busy a busy month and we’re just getting fully revved. In between travel to various trade shows and meetings, we expect to follow-up with many of the folks we met at HIMMS, Microsoft Build, MacWorld and all the other meetings that allowed SJN salespeople to see so many of our contacts in person.

As always, the calendar is fluid with more meetings to be added as I write this, and a couple that may not make the final cut this year. In the midst of all these meetings we hope you’ll all enjoy the Spring holiday of your choice.

04/05/14 – 04/10/14

American Association of Neurological Surgeons

San Francisco

04/07/14 – 04/09/14

Marketo – The Marketing Nation Summit

San Francisco

04/07/14 – 04/10/14

National Association of Broadcasters and Content providers

Las Vegas

04/07/14 – 04/09/14

Retail Technology Conference

Orlando

04/08/14 – 04/10/14

Specialty Retail SPREE Annual Tradeshow

Las Vegas

04/08/14 – 04/11/14

IEEE

Orlando

4/11/14 – 4/11/14

San Diego County 2014 Realtors Expo & Conference

San Diego

4/11/14 – 4/13/14

17th Annual Western Health Care Leadership Academy

San Diego

4/12/14 – 4/14/14

NAPEC – North American Professionals & Entrepreneurs

San Diego

5/7/14 – 5/9/14

FUSE – Brand Strategy & Design

Chicago

04/15/14 – 04/17/14

Red Hat, Inc.

San Francisco

04/22/14 – 04/25/14

2014 Materials Research Society Spring Meeting

San Francisco

4/23/14 – 4/26/14

ANA – Association of National Advertisers

San Diego

04/25/14 -04/29/14 American Association of Orthodontists

New Orleans

4/26/14 – 4/30/14

Experimental Biology 2014

San Diego

4/26/14 – 4/30/14

ACRP – Clinical Research Pharma

San Antonio

04/26/14 – 04/29/14

American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery

San Francisco

04/26/14 – 04/29/14

International Signage Expo & Brand Summit

Orlando

04/27/14 – 05/01/14

ServiceNow Knowledge14 Conference

San Francisco

04/27/14 – 04/29/14

Digiday Brand and Content Summit

Nashville

5/6/14 – 5/9/14

Contact Center Expo & Conference

San Diego

5/11/14 – 5/14/14

Indian Gaming 2014 Tradeshow & Convention

San Diego

5/16/14 – 5/21/14

American Thoracic Society Annual International Conference

San Diego

05/16/14 -05/19/14 International Jewelry & Merchandise Show

New Orleans

5/25/14 – 5/30/14

NAFSA 2014 Annual Conference & International Education Expo

San Diego

6/1/14 – 6/6/14

Display Week 2014

San Diego

6/2/14- 6/5/14

Sustainable Brands

San Diego

]]>https://sjnsales.wordpress.com/2014/04/07/april-tradeshows-meetings-partial-list/feed/0sjnsalesHIMMS14 is open. Healthcare IT’s biggeshttps://sjnsales.wordpress.com/2014/02/24/himms14-is-open-healthcare-its-bigges/
https://sjnsales.wordpress.com/2014/02/24/himms14-is-open-healthcare-its-bigges/#respondMon, 24 Feb 2014 19:38:16 +0000http://sjnsales.wordpress.com/2014/02/24/himms14-is-open-healthcare-its-bigges/]]>HIMMS14 is open. Healthcare IT’s biggest gathering. Morning preview. http://ow.ly/tWZW3]]>https://sjnsales.wordpress.com/2014/02/24/himms14-is-open-healthcare-its-bigges/feed/0sjnsales+vivek wadhwa writes yet another piece ohttps://sjnsales.wordpress.com/2014/02/21/vivek-wadhwa-writes-yet-another-piece-o/
https://sjnsales.wordpress.com/2014/02/21/vivek-wadhwa-writes-yet-another-piece-o/#respondFri, 21 Feb 2014 17:12:16 +0000http://sjnsales.wordpress.com/2014/02/21/vivek-wadhwa-writes-yet-another-piece-o/Continue reading →]]>+vivek wadhwa writes yet another piece on how women are accidentally, systematically, under hired, and underrepresented in the Tech company world. SJN Sales has had no problem hiring strong, experienced women, and having those women rise to leadership. Perhaps it’s our lack of a Man-cave, or even the rejection of super-hero theming.
This may seem like a small issue to the fine yound men staffing these companies but the lack of women in leadership roles, heck any roles, tends to lead to products and services that women don’t want because they lack features etc. that having even a few women in the room would have made obvious. That’s me, Deb Taylor, hating Dropbox for its unnecessarily messy interface since it began. Have good day. SJN Sales is hiring.﻿ http://ow.ly/tRJz6]]>https://sjnsales.wordpress.com/2014/02/21/vivek-wadhwa-writes-yet-another-piece-o/feed/0sjnsalesWork hard. Be Nice. Don’t Holler at Anyhttps://sjnsales.wordpress.com/2014/02/17/work-hard-be-nice-dont-holler-at-any/
https://sjnsales.wordpress.com/2014/02/17/work-hard-be-nice-dont-holler-at-any/#respondTue, 18 Feb 2014 03:15:12 +0000http://sjnsales.wordpress.com/2014/02/17/work-hard-be-nice-dont-holler-at-any/Continue reading →]]>Work hard. Be Nice. Don’t Holler at Anybody. How hard is this? Some thoughts from Christina Trapolino got SJN Sales talking about the high cost of emotional outbursts at work. Paypal CEO David is the latest victim of his own temper. http://ow.ly/tJ6Cb]]>https://sjnsales.wordpress.com/2014/02/17/work-hard-be-nice-dont-holler-at-any/feed/0sjnsalesSnow Days. Happen.https://sjnsales.wordpress.com/2014/01/29/snow-days-happen/
https://sjnsales.wordpress.com/2014/01/29/snow-days-happen/#respondWed, 29 Jan 2014 22:01:24 +0000http://sjnsales.wordpress.com/?p=474Continue reading →]]>This year’s polar vortex, snow-storms aplenty, etc. have given the clients and vendors that SJN Sales works with multiple opportunities to practice the skills of being productive, while working from your (generally quite comfortable) snowed-in home.

Email works pretty well for most communications. Yes, email is sometimes less than ideal for completing projects, deals, etc. But it has the undeniable advantage of maintaining radio silence between you, whomever is sharing your snow day with you, and the folks you do business with all year long.

This year, we are seeing an avalanche of bad outcomes from snow day communications that do not have the upside benefits of email. Specifically, we have witnessed multiple conference call train wrecks over the past few weeks. Conference calls that left business in worse shape than if one or more of the participants had simply called off. Conference calls that made a few people laugh and one professional squirm. The conference call of too much information, that may yet lead to a divorce and the re-homing of an apparently nice dog, have led the SJN team to have a little chat about when conference calls are not worth the trip.

Conference calls are a way of life these days. The SJN Sales healthcare IT team, that I lead, has no less than a dozen conference calls planned in an average week. The advantages of linking people across geography, and companies, without schlepping on Southwest are well known. These advantages make most people’s jobs far more pleasant than in the old, on-the-road-again, days.

If you work from home frequently, you probably have a quiet sanctum where you can conference call to your hearts delight. It’s a great way to wait for the cable guy or avoid the worst commute day of the week. It also has made it possible for legions of salespeople and other road warriors to accommodate requests for call times outside normal business hours. So far, so good. Everyone wins with accessibility and fewer hours in the car.

Snow days, however, may change your conference calling environment, even if you normally have peace and quiet at your disposal. Kids home from school on the fourth snow day of the year are not as likely to maintain their inside-voice, volume controls, as the smiling cherubs who celebrated with snow angels, back in November. Pets, other adults trying to work beside you, and the occasional drop-in neighbor who thinks that everyone being home means it’s time to roam…your block, are all reasons that you too may need to call off, take a snow day and reschedule the call.

Failure to honestly evaluate whether your snow day calling environment has deteriorated to a level that makes rescheduling the call a good plan, is of course, a judgment call. But keep in mind, as you blithely offer to schedule calls from your home office, that it is far easier to schedule a conference call than it is to get out of a conference call gone terribly wrong. Your mute button will not save you from an ambient noise level that sounds like Bronco Stadium. Your mute button will help with a brief tickle in your throat, but will not rescue you from the impression left by a crying baby backed up by a seven hungry puppy orchestra.

“Daddy, daddy. I am not interrupting because it’s a real ‘mergency, this time.” will effectively end any productivity that the call you are on may have achieved. Odd pounding noises will cause everyone on the call to evaluate their own environment, and end focused-forward motion, even if no one knows that your house is the source. Hanging up and dialing back in, after you remove the hammer from Timmy’s hands, will let everyone know that the noise originated at your home, in Newton–but will not restore the sales call or project progress. End the call, and be thankful that most of us don’t have video conferencing to add images to the mayhem in the background.

We have technology to make seamless communication available throughout virtually any natural or personal calamity. But take a hint from Old Man Winter, and the veteran sales teams at SJN, who have heard your kids whine, your dogs howl, your adorable screaming babies, yipping puppies, and even the plumbing contractors fixing your frozen pipes. Send us an email. We’ll take care of the essentials in your absence. Reschedule the call.

Snow days happen. Go make snow angels with the kids.

]]>https://sjnsales.wordpress.com/2014/01/29/snow-days-happen/feed/0sjnsalesSnowlanta Sympathy Cardhttps://sjnsales.wordpress.com/2014/01/29/snowlanta-sympathy-card/
https://sjnsales.wordpress.com/2014/01/29/snowlanta-sympathy-card/#respondWed, 29 Jan 2014 21:24:39 +0000http://sjnsales.wordpress.com/?p=467Continue reading →]]>To anyone who has the unfortunate fate to be spending an unscheduled overnight in an Atlanta area Home Depot, school, or Piggly-Wiggly, this sympathy post is for you. If you are one of those unlucky souls, the entire SJN Sales team, many of whom have slept on some pretty hard airport and Metro-Rail floors from time to time, send their best wishes for a speedy thaw and a rapid return to more normal seasonal conditions.

For you who suffer in unplanned storm shelter, we offer only a brief reminder of what a genuinely good reason to take a personal day is: you’re in it. Call the office (if you have battery) and tell them you’re offline until the giant ice-rink clears. Do not attempt to muffle or down-play the sounds of the hundreds of people around you who are each calling their own offices, or trying to reach their kids’ school. Remind anyone, in less storm-stuck territory, how much confidence you have in their ability to handle anything that comes up, during Snowlanta, and then politely hang up.

]]>https://sjnsales.wordpress.com/2014/01/29/snowlanta-sympathy-card/feed/0sjnsalesHappy New Year. Now get to work.https://sjnsales.wordpress.com/2014/01/06/happy-new-year-now-get-to-work/
https://sjnsales.wordpress.com/2014/01/06/happy-new-year-now-get-to-work/#respondMon, 06 Jan 2014 17:06:18 +0000http://sjnsales.wordpress.com/?p=465Continue reading →]]>Happy New Year! Here’s hoping that you joined SJN Sales in taking a little reflective downtime during the last couple of weeks. Hoping too, that you didn’t spend much of your reflective time stuck in an airport, waiting for that weather delayed flight home.

CES. Yes, The Consumer Electronics extravaganza is the big, press pass saturated, meeting that kicks off the new year. Every channel, online and off is inundated with news of curved televisions and yet more devices for measuring your fitness levels. Yes a couple of SJN salespeople and project managers are making the annual CES crawl so that we can talk to the contacts that matter to SJN clients and review what’s new. If it stays cold, there may be thumb wrestling to deicde who gets the honor of going to Orlando.

But wait. January is full of other meetings with equal or superior opportunities for starting the year with fresh client sales:

NRF – The National Retail Federation is always a huge meeting for SJN sales teams, and a big winner, in past years for our clients. January 12 is coming right up so we’ll be hoping that the weather trend is warmer by the time we arrive.

IBM Connect. Now a monolith that folds in the faithful Lotusphere folks and many others will certainly require more than one SJN project manager to walk the talk to our contatcs, old and new.

Healthcare and science meetings re firing up as well. The list of those is worthy of a separate post.

Here are just a few of the meetings we’ve got on our travel schedule for January. Please comment or email if your particular meeting isn’t listed – we may already be going. Or, we can be persuaded to attend by a client or two prioritizing the contacts.

Why do SJN Sales leaders attend so many meetings? Because one meeting where we get to meet and greet our contacts, accumulated over long careers, beats flying to Fargo for one important presentation, any time of year.

]]>https://sjnsales.wordpress.com/2014/01/06/happy-new-year-now-get-to-work/feed/0sjnsalesDreamForce,DMA, and a host of other face-to-face meetingshttps://sjnsales.wordpress.com/2013/11/18/dreamforcedma-and-a-host-of-other-face-to-face-meetings/
https://sjnsales.wordpress.com/2013/11/18/dreamforcedma-and-a-host-of-other-face-to-face-meetings/#respondMon, 18 Nov 2013 19:03:23 +0000http://sjnsales.wordpress.com/?p=460Continue reading →]]>I was reminded, rather pointedly (thanks Nikki Pappas) by various SJN sales team members (Shawn, Tracy, and Joan) that DreamForce is far from the only meeting going on.

This week and next are the two highest density meeting and convention weeks remaining in 2013. But the other meetings, while important and productive events, in industries ranging from medical specialty annual gatherings to medical informatics, to advanced imaging technologies, definitely do not have the likes of Blondie and Green Day to add to the business atmosphere. They also feature attendees far less likely to post selfies of themselves and their co-workers stuffing a convention hotel elevator.

SJN attended more trade shows, conventions, Round Tables, etc. in 2013 than in any other year in company history. Admittedly part of the reason for this is because air fares have made one-off meeting travel fiscally irresponsible. The other reason, true regardless of what fare wars are on, is that going to vertical industry and technology meetings lets SJN people hear the buzz from people walking show floors. Hear the promises and concerns for next year from speakers and the audiences that question them, and get a very good idea of the spending and innovation pulse of the industries we serve.

Some of us have been attending the same annual meetings for decades. SJN Sales technology solutions salespeople can often compare and contrast meeting energy and innovation flow from before the first InternetWorld (remember that one?), to last years’ RSA, and all the ups and downs of IT security, capital seekers, innovators, show floor gimmicks, and what is drawing a crowd to a speaker or booth this year, that fall in-between

Yes, we do go to conventions to make sales for SJN clients. But more sales are made the week after the show than at the meeting – Why? We are very careful not to interrupt people who have paid thousands of dollars to book a booth, or speak their piece, with more than a compliment, a question, and a quick aside that books an after convention meeting to talk about our client solution and how it will build business for the trade-show attendee, speaker, or booth crew.